AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR (AND CRIMSON TIDE FAN) WINSTON GROOM

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Winston Groom: celebrated author, celebrated Bryant-Denny stadium attendee.

[Ed's note: Check out our interview with another Alabama fan, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, right here.]

Winston Groom is best known as the author of Forrest Gump, although ask him to pick his favorite work and he'll respond, "If you had sixteen children and someone asked you that, what would you say?" He's also the author of The Crimson Tide: An Illustrated History of Football at the University of Alabama, and as Saban and company prepare for their Saturday Night Football (8pm, ABC) clash with Clemson, we talked to Groom about the Tide's glorious history, his writing career, and what to expect from Saban as his tenure in Tuscaloosa unfolds.

Bonus: here's ESPN The Magazine's entire college football preview issue in digital form!

The Magazine: Broad question to start. How important is college football—both Alabama and Auburn—to the state of Alabama?

Groom: Well, there's a well known axiom never to plan weddings, funerals, dove hunts, or anything else important on the day of the Alabama-Auburn game. It's a matter of great pride, and has been since the University of Alabama won the 1926 Rose bowl, which was then the equivalent of the National Championship. The state didn't have much to crow about back then, and the win put Alabama on the sports map in a big way. They were consistently dominant until the war—then there was more than a decade of mediocrity. Paul "Bear" Bryant arrived in 1958. Both schools' football programs have brought in hundreds of millions of dollars, which is used in part to subdize other sports programs, and general university finances; college football is a huge money-making, job creating American industry.

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The list of great Tide players is quite long, but you gotta have this guy.

Who do you consider some of the most important Tide players of all-time?

My mama actually dated Johnny Mack Brown, the star halfback from the '26 Rose Bowl team, when she was at the University. He later went on to become a major western moviestar. Then of course there was Bear Bryant, on the 1936 Rose Bowl team (who was known as "the other end" because all eyes were on All American Don Hudson.) The great Bart Starr, who played for the Green Bay Packers and won the first two Super Bowls. And nobody wil forget "Broadway Joe" Namath or Kenny "Snake" Stabler. And of course Lee Roy Jordan, who went on to star with the Cowboys, and of whom Bryant always said:"If they stay between the sidelines, Lee Roy will get them." Lord, there are so many, you're afraid you'll leave some out—Bobby Humphrey, Derrick Thomas, Cornelius Bennett, David Palmer, the wonderful wide receiver whose career was tragically cut short by a horrible broken leg. More than 100 Alabama football players have made First Team All-American.

What's your best story from being at a Tide game?

Last year there was a big hoopla about Alabama students, mostly fraternity people I think, throwing drinks from the stands at University of Georgia players. It reminded me of a time a few years back we were playing South Carolina, and I was in the President's Box toward the end of the game and a woman came up and said: "If we are winning in the last five minutes, Dr. Sorenson would like you to go to the dressing room with him to congratulate the players.'" I guess it was viewed as an honor. Anyway, as we crossed the field, South Carolina kicked a field goal and tied up the game and it went into overtime. The president decided we'd go to the locker room anyway. The action was at the far end of the field, when Shaun Alexander (oops—forgot to mention him in "greats") scored a touchdown and we won.

I was looking behind me to the end zone when all of a sudden there came this perfect avalanche of Dixie Cups filled with whiskey, arcing straight at us. I ducked into the tunnel, but Dr Sorenson was caught full force with every kind of liquor there was—scotch, gin, bourbon, vodka, moonshine; whatever. He was drenched and madder than a wet hen because, he said as a flunkie toweled him off, he had to meet with a delegation of Swedes after this, and he smelled like a distillery. I wondered aloud why the students would throw full cups of their drinks? I mean, when I was there we might have thrown programs or empty cups, but we certainly wouldn't have wasted a perfectly good drink. I suggested that the University might erect a big net, similar to the ones that go up behind the goal posts on kicks to keep the ball from going in the stands. Just at the end of the game, they could raise it over the student section. It would make for good TV, anyway. He was not amused, and next week had a phalanx of police officers in the stands.

Greatest moment in Tide history?

Heaven, there have been so many. My freshman year was Bryant's first national championship, when we beat Arkansaas in the 1962 Sugar Bowl. That was exciting. I think, though, that in 1993 when Gene Stallings' team beat the trash talking Miami Hurricanes for the national championship was the sweetest moment. That was when the great George Teague stole the ball from a receiver who was headed for the end zone.

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"Don't ask, don't tell."

How good can Saban be as the coach?

I don't operate a crystal ball, but Saban seems to have all that it takes to make a great coach. He's got this year what most experts agree is the best recruiting class in the country. That's one of his strong suits. Also, he is a no-nonsense disciplinarian, and you have to be these days. We have had our share of trouble with that in recent years. Saban just threw a star player off the team for dealing dope. Hell, I remember when Coach Bryant benched Joe Namath in the Sugar Bowl for having a beer a few weeks earlier. I think discipline is a major challenge for most college football coaches. You can't have players think they are superstars, and above rules or what's best for the team.

How long will he stick around?

As long as he wants to, and has solid winning seasons and manages to beat Auburn more times than they beat us. But even that, ultimately, might not be enough. Sooner or later the fans are going to be harranguing for another national championship. My guess it that he'll be the one to do it.

What key things are you looking at for this season?

The freshman class. A lot of them are going to have to play, and it will be a forecast of things to come. And, like I said, discipline. Last year, towards the end of the season, we got beat by a bunch of rinky-dinks. Hell, I took my 9-year-old daughter to the Louisiana-Monroe game, and all she heard was 100,000 people cursing all at once. The team just let down; quit. I think Saban has fixed that now. I hope.

Changing horses now: which of your works are you most proud of?

Well, if you had sixteen children, and somebody asked you that question, how would you answer it? I like each of them and am proud of them, for different things. Having said that, I think my first book Better Times Than These, a novel about the Vietnam War, was special to me. It got very rgood reviews and did well. And of course there's Forrest Gump. That was a lot of fun to write. If I could write like that all the time, I'd of probably written a hundred books by now.

You have any good Tom Hanks or Robert Zemeckis stories from the set of that film?

Don't ask, don't tell.

What's your method for going about writing a book?

Put ass in chair, put fingers on keys and wait till you start to sweat.

What other authors do you admire, or are you friends with?

I'm sorry to say that so many of them are dead. I was friends with George Plimpton, Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man) James Jones (From Here to Eternity), Joe Heller (Catch 22) Kurt Vonnegutt (too many to mention), Bill Styron (Sophie's Choice), Willie Morris (North Toward Home). Hard to believe they're gone now.

But there are stil plenty left: P.J. O'Rourke, Jim Harrison, Tom McGuane, Julia Reed, Rick Bragg,Jay McInerney, Geoff Norman, Bruce J. Friedman, Stuart Woods, John Barry, Pat Conroy, Fannie Flagg, Charles Gaines, Pete Hamill, Ed Hotchner, Larry L. King, Peter Matthiessen, Gay Talese (he was sports editor of the student newspaper at Alabama years ago). I know all those guys and they're friends of mine.

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Can this man bring another national title to Tuscaloosa?

Quick hitters: best sports movie ever?

North Dallas Forty. Pride of the Yankees. Chariots of Fire. A three-way tie.

Best restaurant in Tuscaloosa?

Dreamland Barbeque, and some little chi-chi joint across the river I can't remember the name of. Great food (terrific prices!), and Kenny Stabler has opened a steakhouse on the strip.

What's the best SEC rivalry aside from Alabama vs. Auburn?

Hard to say, when you keep it limited to SEC. That excludes Fla.-Fla. State. Today I'd say it would be LSU-Florida, Alabama-Tennessee, Auburn-Florida, and LSU-Auburn.

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